EAST LANSING -- A couple weeks ago,
Michigan State wideout Bennie Fowler watched Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio
address the receivers as a unit and challenge the players as individuals.

"He really got on us, like we have
to make a more concerted effort to go after and attack the DBs and play more
physical, so we harp on that every day," Fowler said Tuesday. "We've played with a chip
on our shoulders these last couple weeks, trying to be more physical and run
after the catch as well as in the blocking game.

"That's really effort when it comes
to play more physical. Any time Coach D comes into your meeting room, he's going
to get the point across...went down the line and called every player out, what
they do best and what they need to work on. It was a good practice for the
receivers. We took a step forward that day."

The receivers last season were
inexperienced, and it showed in the form of dropped balls, timing issues with
quarterback Andrew Maxwell and an offense that was 10th in the Big
Ten in scoring.

Dantonio lists Keith Mumphery,
Aaron Burbridge and Tony Lippett as the top receivers on the depth chart and said
he wanted the group as a whole be more consistent.

"We haven't risen to a player like
B.J. Cunningham, and that is the standard," Dantonio said of the receiver who
left Michigan State the school's all-time leader in receptions and receiving
yards. "And that's what we can't accept anything less."

Mumphery led the team with 42
receptions and made perhaps the best individual play, scoring his first career
touchdown against Ohio State by breaking several tackles before diving into the
end zone. Now it's a matter of a player like Mumphery to become more reliable.

"That's where the killer has got to
come in," wide receivers coach Terrence Samuel said. "You've got to take every
play and say, I want it. I want it more. This block, I want it more than this
DB does...I don't want this individual, this DB, to make the tackle.' You have to
will yourself to make these things happen."

Dantonio and Samuel said Fowler
along with Monty Madaris and AJ Troup, both of whom haven't played a down of
college football, are among the others to emerge this spring.

"It's still a work in progress,"
Samuel said. "We are not there. We are nowhere near where B.J. or Keshawn (Martin)
is. If they caught it like that and as consistent as that, trust me, I wouldn't
have a gray hair on my head.

"This whole group, we want them to
be a little more nasty. Run over people. We want them to be those types of wide
receivers because we're going to be a physical team. We're going to run power.
We want our wide receivers to exhibit that as well."